Environment and Climate Change Canada is keeping an eye on an upper ridge of high pressure threatening to create intense heat across all of western Canada in the next week.

Meteorologist Terri Lang said that in British Columbia they could see temperatures topping 40 degrees.

"We won't get that kind of heat, although the heat will start to build," she explained. "Probably next week we are looking at temperatures starting to get sort of in the warmer reaches, but probably still not in the category of heat warning, if we see a heat warning. So, probably next week."

She said there is always a chance the ridge could move out of the way.

"That ridge is not showing any signs of collapsing, but we'll keep an eye on it just because, these ridges can take a while to move through, without the help of a bigger weather system, which collapses it, and then we have another weather system moving through," said Lang.

"But the ridge that's forecasted to build, these things can last weeks sometimes, and it's quite early in the year for a ridge like this to build up already, so it's looking pretty dire for British Columbia, especially just because of wildfire potential there."